Death comes knocking
by cotton7204
Summary: This is the story of a young man and his group of friends in the hills of southwest virginia, trying to live their life, and to survive the coming zombie apocalypse. Chapter 7 is up now, Please review, Havent had any reviews in a long time......please?
1. The beginings

"Time to get up."

The lights in the room suddenly flashed on when the sound of a older woman's voice cut through the fog of a deep sleep.

"Huh?"

"It's time to get up, youll be late for school if you don't get up soon."

"Alright mom, I'll get up in a few minutes." James rolled over onto his back, scratching his growing beard. Damn, another day of college he thought. Id give anything to be able to skip that god-forsaken place. Grunting with stiffness from having slept in an awkward position for hours on end, James finally stumbled out of bed and went in search for the bathroom in a hurry.

After using the bathroom, he stood In the mirror observing his appearance. Standing at 6' 3", he was a tall man, the years playing football in high school had given him a large muscular frame, but the months of not working out had taken its toll. Weighing in at well over 300 pounds, his muscled body was turning over to fat through disuse. He laughed at himself. "I look like a damn trucker with this beard."

He quickly went into his room and dressed in his favorite pair of jeans and long sleeved white shirt. After checking himself in the mirror of his cramped little room, he went to the computer in the living room to check his emails. He logged onto the yahoo website and briefly checked the news to see what was going on in the chaos filled world today. The main headline was "Race riots break out once again in Los-Angeles."

Nothing new there he thought, there always seemed to be crazy shit going down in that city, but another headline down the page was saying "Confusion and panic spreads while violent gangs attack citizens." That was in Seattle, I wonder what's going on over there he thought. "Oh well, gotta leave before I miss class, bye mom: he yelled back to her room in the small house he shared with her and his grandparents.

"Bye hun, have a good day at school." she said back to him as he was leaving through the front door.

The sun was just peaking over the tops of the mountains when he got into his car, a blue 2002 chevy cavalier. It was a good ole car he thought, not much of a speedster, barely able to go over a 100, but it got him where he wanted to go.

Turning the key, he started on his way to college.

After an hours drive, James pulled into the parking lot of the local community college. He sat there a few minutes eating the McGriddle he picked up at McDonald's, listening to the new Stone Sour cd he picked up a few days before. "Mmmm...god I love this stuff!" he proclaimed as he finished his breakfast.

Right at the moment he turned the car off, the car started to shake. "What the fuck!" he yelled, and looked out his rear view mirror, and he saw it was a couple of his best friends pushing down on the trunk.

"You scared the crap outta me!" he said to the young women standing behind his car.

The two just stood there laughing as hard as they could. "You should have seen your face." one girl said.

James just laughed. "Shut up, I thought someone was messing with my car Amy."

"Come on James, walk with me and Roxy to the game room." Amy said to the flushed young man.

"Alright, sounds like a plan to me." he said.

So, the trio of young friends walked into the college towards the game room that a few students had taken over as their little hang out. As they opened the door to the game room, they took notice that their fellow group of friends had already gotten there and were talking loudly among themselves. James took notice of the little group gathered there. The two girls he liked, Jennifer and Sarah. His high school friends Jeremy and Chris, Roxy's boyfriend Dan, and Amy's boyfriend Adam. All nine of the little group of friends were there.

"Hey James!" Jeremy called to him. "Have you seen the news this morning?"

James looked at him with a funny expression on his face, "Yeah, I checked it out some this morning, they were saying something about riots in Los Angeles and Seattle weren't they?"

"Yeah, buts its spread some man." Dan said to him.

"Spread? How, where?" James asked him.

"I don't know how, but they're saying that New York, Boston, and D.C. has also got that rioting going on in em. And its spread to more cities in the west too." Dan replied to him.

"Well shit, aint that something." he said, "Ah, its nothing the national guard cant handle, unless bush does something stupid to fuck that up, lets hope he doesn't try to give a speech and makes a bigger ass outta himself."

That remark brought laughs to the little group, and they momentarily forgot about the riots going on in the country by greeting one another and asking who was going to skip class and watch some DVD's.

"Whatcha got?" asked Sarah, trying to peer into the bag Adam had brought, which contained the DVD's.

"Uhh...lets see...I've got both Kill Bill's, all three Lord of the Rings, some Dragon ball Z movies, King Kong, and Shaun of the Dead." he told the tall blonde girl.

After a vote, they all decided to watch Shaun of the dead. As they were pulling their chairs around the tv screen. Turning the lights off, and making last second runs to the food machine, the little group of friends remained oblivious to the extreme chaos gripping large parts of the country.


	2. Decisions

"...Reports coming in from all over the east and west coasts, now even from the breadbasket region..."

"...appears as crazed men are attacking random people without provocation..."

"The CDC have released a statement telling everyone not to panic, that this is just an extremely contagious virus, and that they and the government have the situation under control."

James and the rest of the group sat watching the news bulletins scroll by after they had finished watching movies for several hours.

"Sure as hell looks like they have it under control don't they?" remarked dan.

"Damn, that looks bad, look at the injured people." Jennifer said in awed tones to the group.

"Hey, you know what all this looks like James? Amy asked

"What?...oh...sorry, sorta spaced out there...like the beginning of a zombie movie?" James said as he rubbed his stiff neck.

"Yeah, it sure does, but that cant happen, I mean, zombies aren't real ya know, there just made up." replied Jennifer. "There's no way that's what is going on, its probably just gangs or terrorists or something."

"That could very well be the case, we don't know. The news will tell us more." Adam said.

While the little group went on discussing the information the news channels were dishing out, James sat slumped in his chair in thought. "I wonder what the national guard base down the hill is going to do, I say they'll get called up rather soon." he thought out loud. Apparently everyone else heard him.

"Whoa, I forgot about them being down there. Yeah, I think your right man, the governor or the president should be calling them up soon." replied Amy.

"Ah, im really sure that they will, seems like they need all the help they can get out there." James sighed deeply, and looked at the clock. "Shit, its almost five, I think we should probably get outta here soon. Roxy? Do you think I can come stay with you, Dan, and Amy tonight? Im in the mood for a few beers."

"Hell, you know your welcome anytime my large friend." grinned Roxy.

"Yeah I know, well, let me call mom and tell her im not coming home, she should be home by now."

James walked out the door into the empty hallway to call home on his cell phone. The phone rang. Then rang again, it rung a total of seven times before he got the answering machine. Shit, he thought, she should have been home by now. "Hey mom, its me, im just calling to tell you I wont be home tonight, that im spending the night with some friends, and could you do me a favor? Don't go into work tomorrow, I've got a bad feeling or something, well talk to ya later mom, love ya, bye."

"You get her James? Asked Amy.

"No, she wasn't home." came the worried reply. "She should have been home almost an hour ago."

"Ah, don't worry about It buddy, she probably had to stay late. Roxy told him.

"Your probably right, she's old enough to take care of herself." he chuckled. "Come on Roxy, lets go do some drinking." he grinned.

So, the four friends said their goodbyes to the others, and left to go to Roxy and Dan's house. Meanwhile at the small national guard base less than a half mile down the road, Major Noah Horne received a frantic cell phone call from his only daughter, 25 year old Leah Horne, who live on the outskirts of Washington D.C.

"Daddy? Are you there?" came the frantic voice of Leah.

"Yeah hun, what is it?" replied the rough voice of her father.

"Oh dad, im scared to death, I'm driving down a back road outside of D.C... I don't know what to do!" she said in a voice in near panic.

"Tell me what's going on Leah, I'll see if can help you any." said Noah, trying to speak calmly, although his heart was beating faster and faster by the minute.

"You know the rioting the new has been talking about all morning? Well I went in to work this morning not thinking about it, and about noon, in came Tommy staggering into the lobby of theoffice, he was white as a ghost, with blood all over his face and arms...he was missing almost all of his fingers daddy!" she sobbed.

With growing apprehension, Noah tried to calm his daughter down. "Shhh baby, calm down, tell me what else happened Leah."

Leah choked back her sobs, trying to steer her car and he emotions safely through the evening. "Five of us came over and tried to wrap his hands up, stop the bleeding, but it wasn't working to well, we asked him what had happened to him. He told us all that he was walking down the Wendy's a few blocks away for lunch when a couple of crazy jumped him, screaming and bitting at him, he had tried to punch one of them in the face, but the guy had grabbed his hand, the bite off most of his fingers. Somehow he managed to get away and stagger back to work. By the end of his story he was pale as a ghost, he looked like he was dying."

She had to fight back tears when the memory came back to her. "Then he did just that daddy, he died...we all just stood there not knowing what to do, then maybe a minute later, he just sat straight up and bite right into the neck of Stan! He started eating him daddy! It was horrible, the rest of us just stood there dumbfounded by what was going on, we barely noticed that Stan had died, and he too sat bolt upright, the came for the rest of us, that's when we ran for it. I ran down the hall to the parking lot while Stan and Tommy ran after us, screaming the whole time, somehow I managed to get away when they dragged down Jenni and started to eat her, they were eating her alive dad!" she cried to her father. "Ever since I've been driving, trying to get out of this city, its happing all throughout the city dad, I've never seen anything like it, even the national guard and military were being pushed back and attacked by these crazy people." she finished her story after collecting herself.

Noah sat there through the gruesome tale, you would have been hard pressed to see any emotion or movement come across his face, save for the worry and fear he felt for Leah.

"Hun, you're still several hours out from getting here, do you think you can make it?" he asked the distraught young woman.

"I don't know daddy, im scared to death some of those people will try to attack my car, I've seen a few of them trying to get into a few houses out here." she told her father.

"Listen sweetheart, see if you can get down her, but be careful, don't stop for anyone, just drive, and if you don't think you can make it here. Head down to Fort A.P. Hill, I've got several friends there that will know you're my daughter, just ask for general Mcgrath, they'll keep you safe for me." He thought for a second. " In fact Leah, I want you to head straight there, it's the closest place to you that I know you'll be safe on ok, alright sweetheart?" he told her.

"Alright daddy, that sounds good, ill do what you say...Im going to get off of here dad, ill head down there, don't worry about me, ill be fine,...and dad, I...I. love you." Leah said.

Somewhat taken aback by the unfamiliar words, he spoke after a few silent seconds. "I love you too Leah, get there safe, and stay in touch if anything else happens, ok?

"Yes daddy, I will, bye." with that, his tiny little daughter turned off her cell phone.

Noah sat there in thought for several minutes, things must be really bad for her to tell him she loved him, she rarely ever said that to him. Even though he knew she did, it was still extremely surprising to hear her say that. He had heard reports from several of his old army buddies, each one of them getting more and more gruesome and frightening. One of them had told him that he had lost half of his command in less than 15 minutes, almost 300 men and women, drug down and eaten John had said. Eaten? There was no way that other people could be eating other people. A sudden memory he had from when his daughter had been in high school. She had blackmailed him into watching Night of the living dead with her. That movie gave him nightmares for weeks.

But there's no way that is what's happening now, zombies weren't real! Just as he was finishing that thought, Corporal Johnson knocked at the door and let himself in.

He saluted then went on hurriedly, "Excuse me sir, but we have received urgent orders to call the national guard up and send them to the Washington D.C. front." the young blonde man told his superior.

"Thank you corporal, send out the word to for the national guard to assemble in the main hall in 2 hours." he told him. "Also tell them to bring their families and as much supplies as they can conveniently carry in their vehicles." He knew they would be hard pressed to leave their families alone with the recent events, and he also knew had some time to think, for the soldiers all lived scattered about the mountains.

"Their families sir? The corporal replied.

"Yes their families, corporal!" He snapped to the young man. "You are dismissed corporal, send out the word. They are to report as soon as possible, do not forgot my orders Johnson."

Corporal Johnson snapped to attention and saluted, "Yes sir!" with that the man left the room to gather the scattered force of 750 men and women.

After Johnson had left, Noah sat deep in thought, running through all the information he had gathered throughout the day. Men attacking other men at random, eating those they attacked. Those that were killed rising up and eating other innocent people. No, Noah had a hunch that the battle to stem the virus or whatever it was failing, disintegrating more like it.

He had made his decision. He was not going to send his men into a losing battle to face a horrifying death. He knew this was treason and he would face a court marshal, but had a suspicion that their would be no military panel to court marshal him in a few days. No, he would make his stand here, in familiar territory. Hoping that he would be able to withstand an assault that many of his peers were withering under.

With a small smirk, he said silently to himself. "I would gladly face a court marshal, if all this turned out well, if not, ill be ready for whatever may come." with that said, he turned his attention over to how he was going to stay alive the next few days.


	3. Encounters

Authors note: I dont know how often I'll write on this, but i hope to at least make it weekly. I hope you all enjoy my first attempt at story writing, the reviews are greatly appreciated.

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A few minutes after James had left to go drink with Roxy, Dan, and Amy, the remaining five friends sat around a table in the corner of the game room discussing what they would be doing later that evening.

"Hey Sarah, wanna go bowling with me later?" Jennifer asked the tall blonde.

Sarah sat for a few seconds mulling the idea over in her head. "Sure, why not, but where at? Didn't they close the one here in town?"

"Yeah they did, but there's one in Bluefield, I've heard its pretty good." Jennifer replied.

"Alright, I think I'll go with ya then, beats sitting at the house doing nothing." laughed Sarah "What about the rest of you? Wanna go bowling with us?"

"Nah, I've got to go to work, which sucks ass, because Food City doesn't give me enough hours anyway. But thanks for asking." Chris told her.

Sarah and Jennifer both looked at Adam and Jeremy with raised eyebrows.

"No, bowling's not my thing, if you asked me to go to a club or something, then I'd follow you in a heartbeat." replied Jeremy.

Adam echoed that by saying he had never bowled before, and just wasn't feeling up to it. He would just go home and sleep. With that said, everyone just sat there in silence for a few seconds, then they all got up at nearly the same time, and made it a race to get to their respective cars.

Noah Horne stood before the force deep in thought, deciding on his course of action. Several members of his force were missing, 47 in total. Noone could raise them on the phone, or via email. They either had fled the area, or simply didn't care about the guard anymore. That left him with just over 700 soldiers, and those soldiers had brought the members of their families that they could muster. 182 women and children, fathers and mothers. He had plenty of room on the base to house five times that number if need be.

He just didn't know if that would be necessary. He had lost contact with his friends in Boston, D.C. New York, Los Angeles, and Houston save for one lone commander that had fortified a police station and was holding out there. Lieutenant Colonel John Dryden, they had went through basic together, now he was fighting for his life, with only 162 of his 1100 soldiers left alive. John had given him a phone call not to long ago, describing his dire situation. The only thing he could relate what was going on was to zombie movies he said. "Noah, that's the only thing that I can say, we shot several of those fuckers center mass, and they just keep on coming, it was disastrous, we finally figured out that a head shot would finally stop them. Then later we learned that the people they bite became those things. We had 46 that were injured with bites, within a few minutes they died and turned into ...into zombies I guess. They attacked us and took us by surprise, we took heavy losses. So the remaining officers and myself issued orders that anyone bitten will be disposed of immediately." he had told him.

If all that was true, and knowing John the way he did, it was, he was not going to let his men meet that same fate. Maybe he could do the same for some of the local citizens too. He had sent an armed squad to the local radio station, telling the D.J. working there to tell the people to come to the base as soon as possible, but not to panic. That was 3 hours ago. The squad had gotten back without incident. His major problem now, was the fortification of the base. Fortifying the entire base wasn't possible on short notice. But he could try to make the main compound and surrounding buildings safe.

He signaled for his second in command to come over. "Captain Goodell, I want you to take a full company and go out and secure the dozen buses at the bus garage 12 miles south on interstate 81. There is also a car dealership maybe a 1,000 feet away, go there and secure as many vehicles as you can. Mainly trucks if you can. You know how many it should take to park up against the fence." The captain nodded his assurance. "Now Martial law was declared a couple of hours ago, so the owner should comply with you, in the event that he is obstructive, use all necessary force to see that you accomplish your mission. I will trust your judgement. Dismissed."

Noah saluted, and in return so did Captain Billy Goodell as he left to lead his 190 men to retrieve enough large vehicles to brace the insides of the fence. Noah hoped that the vehicles would help do that. He then motioned for 2 more of his higher ranking officers to him.

He gave to two men their orders, one, Lieutenant Brad Robertson, was to take enough men and bring the hummers, jeeps, trucks and other vehicles around to the front gate and stand ready to depart in a half hour. The second man, Sergeant Major Larry Matney, was given the order to assemble the weapons out front, as many as he could fit on the vehicles safely and give the soldiers extra ammo and an extra weapon if they want one. They both saluted and left in a hurry to get their jobs accomplished.

It was now 7:30 A.M. At 8 sharp, He would send half of the remaining troops, a total of just over 200 soldiers, out to assist the populace in their attempts to reach the base. The rest would remain and protect the base and the civilians currently here.

7:43 A.M.

"Sir!" Corporal Johnson came running at breakneck speed towards Noah. " Sir, Captain Goodell has reached the bus garage sir, and he has found all employees there dead, and 11 zombies in the immediate area!" he told his commanding officer in a shaky voice.

It has begun Noah thought. "Give me the radio Corporal." Johnson handed him the radio."Captain. Come in. Do you read me?"

"Yes sir, do you want me to proceed as ordered sir?" Came the static filled voice.

"Yes Captain. Remember what we went over last night. These things are zombies, we know that much. A shot to the head will stop them for good. Avoid bites at all costs. If anyone becomes bitten, you know what to do." Noah waited for a response.

"Yes sir, I do." Caption goodell replied with a hint of doubt in his voice.

"We cant afford mistakes, Billy. Not anymore. Mistakes will get us all killed. Your one of my best men. I trust you to get the job done. Luck to you, Noah out." he handed the radio back to the corporal.

It was now eight. Time for him to lead his men into the now dangerous country to try to save as many lives as possible. He ordered his men to the main yard out front to assemble for a rescue mission. All the available trucks and weapons were ready to go. Noah looked into the faces of the nearest group of soldiers, and saw his fear and apprehension mirrored in their faces.

"Lets move out!" he thundered when everyone was in position.

James lay in the floor of Roxy's apartment, listening to the alarm clock in Roxy and Dan's bedroom go off.

"Someone please turn that goddamn noisy thing off!" James yelled into the couch on his left. He didn't know how he got on the floor, but with the headache he already had, he had a good idea.

"I second that." Mumbled Amy from the guest bedroom.

James chuckled to himself. "Ah fuck, I got class at eight dammit." he cursed at himself. Rubbing his aching neck, he stumbled upright and went to wake Roxy and Dan up. But he was late on that, they were awake by the time he got into their room. "Were up man." mumbled Dan.

"Alright, just making sure. Its 7:15 right now. I'm gonna get a shower. Then we gotta leave."

They said they would be ready to go by the time he got out, so with that, James went to take his shower, passing Amy as she was leaving the bathroom. He decided to shave while he was at it. "I could sure use one." he said as he checked himself in the mirror, and started to busy himself with showering and shaving.

When he had got out and got dressed, he went to the kitchen and grabbed a pop tart and went into the living room to watch some tv quickly before he left. When he got there, he saw all three of his friends staring out the front window.

"What are ya looking at out there?" he asked Amy.

"SHHH!...come here!" She whispered to him.

"What? What is it?" he asked as he walked to the window and looked out.

What he saw made his blood run cold. On the front lawn of the apartment was their neighbor, 27 year old John Fry laying on the ground, with a man dressed in a bloodied and tattered business suit, And a woman dressed in just a ripped bathrobe. They were eating him.

"Holy fucking shit...damn...fuck..." James stammered. "What the fuck is going on."He whispered to the rest of the group.

"Zombies James, their zombies. They've got to be, that guy has his guts hanging out." Dan told him.

"Well what do we do, we cant stay here. Do we have any guns or anything?" Asked James in a hurried voice.

"And where the hell do you think were gonna go? To the college?" said Roxy.

"Uhh...yeah...no, that wouldn't be a good idea huh?" James thought for a few seconds."The national guard base! they have weapons and soldiers and shit there!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah. We thought about that already, I do believe that's were we need to go...and go veeeery soon." Amy told them all.

"James, we had a handgun In the closet. Its on the couch now. My dad gave it to me, it's a 9mm. Got 2 extra clips. But I don't really wanna shoot those things or waste the bullets." Dan told him in a rather calm voice given the situation. "But we do have these swords hanging on the wall. Most are just replicas and fakes and shit, but we've got three real katana's. And an old broadsword that's been in the family forever."

"Yeah. I think I know what your saying, take the real swords down and get rid of those zombies?" James asked him in an almost incredulous voice.

"Yep. Pretty much."

"Shit." James laughed. "I've always wanted to try out some swordplay. Looks like ill get my chance. Although im taking the broadsword, I've got a little Scottish blood in me. So, I want the big motherfucker." He grinned.

"Damn man, you're just a tad bit crazy, you know that?" Dan told him as we went to retrieve the swords.

"Now, there's enough swords for the four of us, and dan, you carry the gun just in case we need it. Roxy is the better driver so she has the keys. The plan is, since your all pussies, that I'll go out there first and take a hack or 2 at the zombies out there. Amy, you follow close behind me, I may need help. Roxy, you and dan go around the side of the house and get your truck, its got enough room for the four of us. I only see 3 of them out there, but there will probably be more around, and the sound may bring them here, so pay attention to everything and be ready. As soon as Amy and I dispatch the zombies, we'll hightail it to the truck, then we'll head to the base. Got it?" James told the three in a hushed voice.

"Damn you talk a lot James, but yeah, I got it" Amy told him. The other two nodded their agreement.

"Alright, lets do this." James said excitedly as he went to the front door."On three, ready? One...two...three!" he turned on the handle and shoved on the door with his shoulder. But he forgot to unlock the door.

"Good lord man, give me a heart attack!" Amy smacked him upside his head.

James managed to look slightly sheepish."Sorry, but lets do it for real this time." He unlocked the door, and counted down. " One...two...three!" He threw the door wide open and rumbled down the steps with the rest in tow. Within an instant the zombies heard them and turned towards them and screamed their defiance. Without hesitation, James ran full speed at the male businessman and swung the sword with all his considerable strength into the head of the zombie. The sword crunched bone and took the zombies head off from the nose up, and he went down in a spray of blood and brain matter.

But James had underestimated the force of his swing, the momentum of his powerful stroke had carried him straight into the zombie woman. Knocking them both to the ground in a huge heap of limbs. Luckily, he landed on top of the woman and she had landed face down on the ground, and he had her pinned down, but he had temporarily forgotten about the third zombie, Roxy and Dan's once next door neighbor. With a wild scream the zombiefied neighbor made a quick lunge at him.

That's when Amy finally threw herself into the fray. With a huge leap, she jumped over James and the sprawled zombie woman, and delivered a surprisingly strong downward stroke upon the head of the third zombie, splitting the man's head in half straight down to his torso. Amy was panting hard and looking around wildly for anymore zombies, should they make their presence known. None showed up.

With a look of amazement, he regarded Amy. "Damn, that's one tough girl."Then he turned his attention back to the squirming form beneath him. With one arm he held the small woman under him relatively still, as he placed the point of the sword at the back of her head. With a huge downward surge, the claymore plunged through the woman's head to embed itself in the damp earth.

"James, Amy! Come on we got the truck ready, and I see a few more coming down the street, hurry!" Yelled Roxy to the two beleaguered friends.

Without any further encouragement, they both headed for the truck as fast as they could, for they could see the half dozen or so forms racing down the street towards them. They reached the safety of the truck only five seconds before the zombies caught up with them. Banging on the sides of the truck and the windows, screeching their hunger for their flesh, Roxy stamped her foot down on the gas as if she were trying to stamp out a fire. Leaving their pursuers to struggle behind them, they headed for the supposed safety of the national guard base. With the carnage of the early dawn left behind the small group of four friends had survived their first encounters with the living dead.


	4. Bowling

"Hey Sarah, look through my cd's and put something in, the radio never has anything good on anymore." Jennifer told Sarah, who was sitting in the passenger seat of Jennifer's beat up blue truck.

"Alright, lets see what we got, Trace Adkins, Montgomery Gentry, hey, Garth Brooks, not bad. Dwight Yoakam, oh my god!" Sarah laughed, while Jennifer just scowled at her.

"Yes I have Dwight Yoakam, don't put it in if ya don't like it." Jennifer stuck out her tongue at Sarah. "Keep looking, im sure you'll find something."

"I think I've got something right here." Sarah said as she picked a cd out from Jennifer's cd case and put it into the trucks cd player. Within a few seconds Metallica's version of turn the page was blaring full blast throughout the truck.

"Hell yeah! I love this shit!" Sarah yelled to the brunette behind the wheel.

"I can tell girl." Grinned Jennifer.

With some good driving music to cruise to, Jennifer and Sarah continued their trek to the bowling alley in the next town over, Bluefield, Va. Around 45 minutes later they pulled into the parking lot of the towns bowling alley, just named generically "Bluefield Bowling Alley".

"You gonna cover me, I'm a poor person." Sarah joked around with her friend.

"Hell no, you've got more money than me!" Laughed Jennifer.

"I wonder where everyone's going, we sure passed a lot of cars on the way here. No way there coming home from work, its almost eight." Sarah asked after she had stopped laughing.

"Ah, I don't know, maybe heading away from all that trouble up north, don't know why though, the army will take care of everything." Jennifer confidently told Sarah.

"I reckon they can, sure hope it doesn't come down this way. Anyway, lets do some bowling girl, and see if we can find and cute guys for ya." Sarah elbowed Jennifer slightly in the ribs.

"Sounds like a winner to me." she laughed, taking her arm and pulling Sarah forward, "Let's go on in, maybe we'll both get lucky."

The two girls sauntered into the bowling alley, laughing and pushing each other around. After three hours of playing, and no cute guys anywhere in sight, the two were getting tired and slightly bored.

"My arm is killing me Jennifer, and there is only old scruffy men in here." Pouted Sarah.

"Yeah, my arm is killing me too, and your right, not a single hot guy here, and its almost empty, wanna go ahead and get outta here? It's almost eleven, and you can stay at my place, watch some tv or something." Jennifer told her

"Yeah, this place is really starting to bore me, lets get outta here, let me go use the bathroom first." said Sarah as she was walking to the ladies room.

"I'll be waiting in the lobby for ya, don't take forever!" Yelled Jennifer as Sarah entered the bathroom.

Jennifer walked to the lobby and leaned on the front desk, looking at the paintings and posters on the wall. Weird choice in paintings, she thought, that looks like the one called "The scream". Who did that one? Van Gogh? Yeah, I think he did that one, Jennifer was thinking to herself when a large black man with a security guard uniform came stumbling in.

"Somebody call 911!" the man yelled to the couple of people who behind the desk, holding his right arm.

"What happened?" A tall lanky blonde haired man asked him as he picked up the phone to call for an ambulance.

"Some fucking crazy tried to mug me or something when I was walking to my car a few blocks down, fucker latched onto my arm and took a big piece off with him!" He showed the 6 people gathered around his arm for proof. There was a huge hole in his arm bleeding profusely. "I had to hit him over the head with my nightstick to get away from the dude." He replaced the piece of cloth back over it, trying to stop the bleeding.

"Sorry man, the lines busy, I tried the cops and theirs is busy too." The man with the phone told him.

"WHAT? How in gods name can they be fucking busy!" the large man screamed at him, then regaining his composer, he leaned against the wall. "I need to get to the hospital and get this stitched up. Im suddenly not feeling to well, got a chair I can sit in?" the man asked noone in particular. As he slowly sank along the wall to sit down with a thud on the floor. "Keep trying to get through, I need to go to hospital." The man's slurred words came to them.

Jennifer was just staring at the man, wondering what was going on, after hearing his story. "He looks bad, what can we do for him?" she asked who she thought was the manager

"We can keep trying to call the hospital, but ill go get a blanket and wrap around him, looks like he's passed out." said the manager as he walked into a little room behind the desk.

"Hey! I think he just stopped breathing!"A short bearded man told them when he had bent close to the man.

Jennifer walked over to him and put her head to his chest, she couldn't feel a pulse, he was dead. "You had better try to get hold of somebody, he's dead." she looked around "Anyone know CPR?" she asked them. The people gathered around all shook their heads no.

She stood up and walked over to the man trying to call for help. While an older man bent over the body of the black man to see if he was truly dead, and that's when the man suddenly sat up and grabbed hold of the old mans arm and started to bite down. The man let out a bloodcurdling scream and tried to yank his arm back, hitting the man in the face over and over, but the dead man just ripped a large section of his wrinkled skin off, and bit down again on the old mans arm. Finally after a few seconds of tearing and ripping, the old mans arm was torn off from the elbow down, and the zombie went to town on the mans arm. The old man, who looked like he was a farmer, was screaming his lungs out in pain and just staring at where his arm used to be.

Sarah came running out when she heard the first screams of the old man, and ran into the lobby to witness the mans arm being ripped off.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. Jennifer! We've got to get outta here, right fucking now!" Sarah had seen enough zombie movies to know what she was seeing.

"We cant, we need to stay here and help these people, wait for the cops and paramedics to get here." Jennifer told her as she was wrapping a shirt around the now unconscious old man.

The other people in th lobby were still just standing around in shock at what they had seen. A woman in a green flowered dress just stood there wide eyed and opened mouth when the large black zombie got up and ran right at her, biting into her neck. The woman didn't even scream as her throat was ripped open.

Jennifer got up from the now dead old man and started to calmly walk over to where to zombie was feasting on the woman's neck. By now, the spell over everyone else had broken, and almost as one, they started to run in wild abandon towards their car. Sarah ran and caught Jennifer before she was able to get close to the gory scene and grabbed her by the arm and started to drag her towards the door.

"Come on! What the hell are you doing, cant you see that man is a zombie! He's eating that woman for gods sake!" Sarah yelled to her friend as she forcibly turned her around to look at her, but what she saw in her eyes scared her. There was nothing remotely resembling intelligence in those eyes, just a dull glassy sheen.

"No, they just need help, ill wait for the ambulance to get here." Jennifer told her in soft emotionless words. "You should wait here with me. We can help that woman over there" Jennifer smiled and slowly pointed to the now rising dead woman.

"Jennifer, give me the keys, give me the keys now. We've got to get out of here!" Sarah pleaded as she watched the woman getting up and turn her attention towards the two young girls standing near the door.

Jennifer just stared without blinking at her and frowned, then slowly got her keys out of her pocket and handed them to Sarah. "You go for help. I'll just stay here and care for these people." The smile reappeared on Jennifer's face.

Sarah then knew that her friend had lost her mind, and had a tough choice to make, and only seconds to make it. With tears streaming down her face, Sarah quickly embraced her best friend. "I love you Jen, ill see you later, take care." Sarah turned and fled out the door into the parking lot just before three zombies attacked Jennifer. Climbing into the truck, she turned the key and it roared to life, with tires squealing, she turned onto the highway to make her way home. Crying like a broken hearted child, Sarah started down the suddenly chaotic highway. There were cars and trucks speeding down the direction she was taking, and she joined in with the frantic rush away from hell. She suddenly had a thought to turn on the radio, hoping to pick up something. She turned it to the local station, and caught the night DJ telling people to make it to the national guard base next to the college, that they were a safe place to go. Still listening intently, Sarah now had a place to go, her parents could go to hell, which she suddenly thought that everywhere was now hell. After years of abuse, she had lost all love and respect for her family, and she was content to just leave them to die.

Still crying, Sarah began to make her way toward the safe haven of the National Guard base, weaving in and out of crashed cars and reckless drivers.

A/N: Hope this one wasnt too bad. Would have wrote this one a few days ago, but im trying to get my things together and get ready for college to start back. But I think ive got the ball rolling now, so maybe ill get a few more chapters up soon...and zombies scream, just not words, they moan, but if you watch the new-ish dawn of the dead, they scream, growl loudly, but i dont want to start an arguement lol. Later people.


	5. Parents

A/N: Sorry for the long time between updates, but college has been killer for me, but i hope to keep plugging away at this story until i finish it. well...enjoy i guess.

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Adam was driving home after picking up some dinner from KFC for his mom since he figured that she wouldn't want to fix any dinner after coming home from work. As he drove, munching on a piece of chicken, he turned on the beat up radio he had been meaning to replace but never got around to. The first few channels were either broadcasting static or a repeating emergency broadcast message, wanting to relax a few minutes before getting home, he keep searching, hoping he would find a station actually playing music. He finally found a station that was working right, but it was just playing a news broadcast, giving up on finding some music, he just left it on and concentrated on driving while only half listening to the news.

"The CDC has rescinded their earlier statements, and are now says that this crisis is not the cause of a biological attack, as the white house has been saying all along, but that the recently deceased are coming back to life. There has been limited response from the white house, but those few statements are denying these claims. Now, I know that's bullshit! I mean come on, the dead coming back to life? No way in hell that is what's going on. I still agree with the white house personally, that it was a biological attack, but im only here to report the news, not to voice my opinion. I apologize for any offensive remarks I have made. With that said, the state has issued a list of rescue stations, and we will be giving those to you shortly and every 10 minutes thereafter, but now we go to Brian Ward live outside Richmond. Brain?"

"Yes Dwayne, I am here at the state capitol just after the governor has given his speech. The governor and the rest of the main state government have been relocated to an undisclosed location and have called up all available national guard units and sent to set up a defensive perimeter approximately 15 miles to the east of Richmond. According to the few national guard superiors that we have been able to talk to, the entire east coast of Virginia and several major cities in the central part of the state have been affected by whatever is going on, but they say that everything is under control, and that they are slowly bringing order to those regions. That's the latest from Richmond, back to you Dwayne "

"Thank you for that brief report Brian. Now, we have a list of the rescue stations in your area here ...somewhere. Where is that list? What? Well find them! I don't care...you know what, screw it, ill find them myself!" While the anchorman was searching for the list of rescue stations Adam pulled up into his family's driveway turning the car off, shaking his head Adam hoped that everything would turn out alright, but Richmond was a long ways off still, so he shouldn't worry about it too much. Getting out or the care he tried to juggle his bookbag and the three bags of food, mumbling cursed the whole way to the door, almost dropping the food, but his mom saved him just in time by grabbing the bags of food from him before he dropped them.

"Hey hun." his mom said. " I was waiting for you to get home."

"Yeah, I finally got back, traffic was a bitch though. Hey! I brought home some chicken and stuff from KFC, thought you would rather eat out and not have to cook tonight." Adam told his middle aged mother.

'Thanks kid, I wouldn't know what to do with out ya." his mother laughed. "Come on inside, but be quiet, Your father isn't feeling to well this evening and is in bed, hopefully sleeping."

Adam frowned, his dad never went to bed early, even with a bad case of the flu. It just wasn't like him at all to go to bed early. He was usually outside tending to livestock or taking care of the average sized garden till well after dark. " What's wrong? Is he really sick?" he asked.

" I don't know, he came home about 4 hours ago from the farm store, saying that there had been a brawl there and someone had bit his hand. He had it all bandaged up, so I couldn't see how bad it was. But he said he was just going to go lay down for a little while, since he wasn't feeling all that great. He's been asleep ever since he got back." Kathy, Adams mother said to her son.

"Is he going to be alright? Adam asked in a slightly worried tone of voice.

"Yeah, I think so, but if he doesn't get any better soon I'm going to take him to the hospital. You'll have to watch your sister if I do have to take him there." she told him, pointing her bony finger at him.

"Nothing new for me there mom. Speaking of miss add, where is she?" Adam asked.

"She's in the basement playing with one of her friends." she said while setting the dinner Adam had gotten on the table. "I'll go get them and we can eat, we'll just let your father sleep for a while."

The dining room was exceptionally quiet that night with at best sporadic conversation. Adam told his mother about what he had learned in class, since he was a decent liar, it went over rather smooth. Melissa, his sister, and her friend, which Adam had a hard time recalling her name, thanked him for bringing home dinner and went back down to he basement to play some more.

" Hey mom, I think I may go lay down and take a little nap or something, I'm really tired. Would you mind waking me up around 11-ish, so that I can get online and talk to Amy?" he asked.

" Sure thing sweetheart, I'll wake you up. Wouldn't want you to miss your naughty little conversations with your girlfriend now would I?" his mom elbowed him in the side, laughing loudly.

"Thanks mom." Adam stuck his tongue out at her, then laughed and gave her a big hug. "Im going to go get some sleep now mom, don't forget, eleven!" he told her as he was walking through the door to his room.

Adam walked over to his stereo and turned it on to his favorite song, Disturbed's Down with the sickness. 'God im tired' he thought while he flopped down on his bed. ' Hope mom remembers to wake me up.'he mumbled into his pillow and in no time at all he was fast asleep.

Adam woke up with a start, trying to determine if the scream he had heard was in his dreams or not. Listening intently he couldn't hear anything else, but again, he could hardly hear anything over his stereo blaring out hard rock. Wondering what time it was he glanced over at the clock on his wall. "Holy shit! Its almost three in the morning!"Adam said loudly to himself, wondering why his mom didn't come wake him up like she promised she would. Getting up and stretching, he suddenly realized that he had to piss like a motherfucker. He half walked, half staggered to his door. Luckily for him the bathroom was right across the hall. Opening the door he stepped out into the hall, making his way to the bathroom. Limping on stiff muscles, he glanced into the living room and at the end of the hall he saw his sisters legs sticking out into plain view from the edge of the sofa, with her little teddy bear laying nearby. 'That's cute, bet she fell asleep on the couch and fell off, I wonder where her friend is?' Adam thought as he walked into the bathroom to empty out his bladder. After flushing the toilet he opened the door to go see if anyone was still awake. As soon as he stepped out of the bathroom he noticed that his sister wasn't there on the floor anymore. 'Weird, I didn't hear her get up or anything.' he thought to himself. Walking down the hall to the living room, he passed where he thought he had seen his sister lying there moments earlier. Looking over he noticed a large dark stain on the carpet, with her teddy bear soaked in the same dark liquid now laying against the couch. Worried, he looked around the living room and into the kitchen to see if he could see her anywhere, only to see two trails of blood, one going from the kitchen through the left side of the hallway down to the end of the hallway, ending at the door leading down to the basement. The other ran from the living room down the other side of the hallway, ending at his sisters blood smeared door.

Adam walked up to his sisters door, knocking lightly. "Melissa, are you alright?" he asked quietly, listening for an sound. When none came he tried the door, but it was locked. "Damn, hey, you alright in there? Open the door sis." Adam said a little bit louder this time. Again no answer came, but he thought he could hear her moving around inside. He knocked on the door a few more times, then put his ear up to the door to see if he could hear anything. He involuntarily took a few steps backwards when he heard footsteps coming towards the door quickly. 'What, is she going to run into the door?' he thought, and with a resounding crack, she did just that, and with the way doors are made these days the door partially splintered, cracking it down the middle.

"Fuck!"he yelled in surprise when that happened."What the hell are you doing?!" he yelled at the now shattering door. Gasping in surprise every time she ran at the door, each time breaking it even further. With one last run at it, the door finally couldn't take any more punishment and shattered to pieces and the girl ran through it with her head down, completely missing Adam , who had moved to the side when he heard the door burst open, running face first in the wall on the other side of the hallway face first. With a sickening crunch, she landed face down on the hallway floor twitching violently. Adam went over to her and kneeled down, gently touching her shoulder. "Sis...are you ok? He asked in a shaking voice. "Melissa, come on, your scaring me, say something." he didn't get a answer from her, only her continuing twitching. "Shitshitshitshitshitshit. What do I do now?" Adam said to himself while he rubbed the back of his head, pacing quickly in a small area around his sister. His thoughts were interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream. Adam froze in mid pace, trying to figure out where that had come from. His mind slowed down to a crawl, taking in more detail than before, glancing down he noticed that almost all of the flesh was missing from the underside of his sisters forearm. His attention was taken away from the slowly stilling form at his feet and was directed to the door leading to the basement. Hearing another scream and what sounded like someone breaking furniture, he watched the door in horrid fascination. Suddenly he heard someone come running up the stairs, then a few seconds later a young girl threw open the door, and slammed it shut, quickly locking it behind her. Slowly turning around, the tiny 14 year old girl sprinted down the hallways towards her best friends older brother.

"Adam! Run, come on, what are you doing just standing there!" she asked as she ran up to him. She looked down at the still body laying at Adams feet."Holy god, Melissa's dead! Adam, come on, we've got to get out of here! Please, I don't want to be here anymore, your parents are messed up Adam, somethings wrong with them, they killed your sister, and tried to kill me!"the girl yelled at him, beginning to cry hysterically, tears streaming down her face.

Adam just stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face, not saying a word. He didn't know what to say to the girl but he didn't get a chance to try as there was a sudden breaking sound coming from downstairs. The girl started crying again, saying something about them breaking through the door, backing even farther down the hall. Footsteps were heard running up the stairs seconds after breaking through the door the young girl had locked them behind to get away. Adam stared in absolute horror as his parents suddenly burst through the door and came into plain view, his mother in front of his dad. Adam took a couple of steps backwards and tripped over the now forgotten body of his sister. He finally remembered the name of Melissa's friend, Rachel, that was he name. Rachel grabbed on to him and started yanking on his shirt, yelling at him to run. Adam looked back down the hall, seeing his parents notice the pair of kids, and start running towards them. His mind finally snapped out of its stupor and started to function normally once again. "Holy fucking shit..." Adam whispered to himself as he watched his mother trip over her own intestines, falling face first, tripping up his father as they both fell into a big heap just a dozen feet away from Adam while he was in the process of getting up. Bolting upright, he half turned away from them, half watched while they struggled to get up. The cries from Rachel brought him to his senses. "Come on Rachel, were getting out of here!" he told the girl while picking her up since he saw that she was frozen in place and wouldn't budge. Taking a quick look at her, he noticed her eyes were glazed over, and she was still crying, while shaking all over. 'Fuck, she's probably going into shock or some shit, this aint good.' he thought as he gently put her over his shoulder and started to run as fast as he could towards the front door.

Running with wild abandon, knocking over small tables and lamps as he neared the door. When it came into sight, he risked a glance back over his shoulder to see if his parents were still behind him. Looking back he saw that they had apparently gotten up and were racing towards him, their mouths hanging open and a look of undisguised hunger on their faces, with the exception of blank white eyes. "Shit!" he spit out while turning back around and ran even harder, a few seconds later he reached the door, turned the handle and bolted out while slamming the door shut behind him. Running down the steps, he stopped when he reached the front lawn, gently setting Rachel down and trying to get his breath and slow his racing heart. He went over to Rachel to check her over quickly and see if she was hurt or anything, satisfied with the impromptu inspection, he looked back at the house, hearing the pair hitting the door with their bodies. Rubbing his temples, trying to bring some relief to the ever growing headache, he pondered on what he was going to do now. "What the fuck is going on. I've got to get some help, call the police, an ambulance, maybe the fire department, cause something's really fucking wrong over here." Adam talked to himself out loud, starting to pace back and forth.

His train of thought was brought to an abrupt halt when an ear splitting crack came from the front door. He knew the door was strong, but that it wouldn't hold out much longer, seeing cracks starting to appear in the only solidly built door in the entire house. "Rachel, come on, time to get out of here." he told the girl, who was still standing in the same spot he had last left her.

"Rachel, girl, listen to me, snap out of this, I need your help ok?" Adam said to her as he knelt down in front of her. "We can drive out of here, I don't know why, but I forgot I had a car." he chuckled, trying to get any response out of the girl, the only thing he got was her looking at him with dead looking eyes, and she said to him, in a cold, emotionless voice. "Were all going to die."

"No were not Rachel, you just stay here and ill go grab the car, its parked just a little ways away, on the other side of that road, so you can see me the whole way alright? Don't move, just stay right there" Adam told her, trying to re-assure her, or at least make that dead look go out of her eyes. But she just stood there, and slowly turned her head towards the house. Seeing that she wasn't going to move, at least he hoped she wouldn't, he went to bring the car around, sensing that she didn't want to be carried anymore. Crossing the road he had an impulse to look back at her, and as soon as he did, he saw here slowly start to walk back towards the house. Stopping dead in his tracks, he turned around and yelled in a half scared, half angry voice, "What the hell are you doing! Don't go back there." 'Fuck she's going to go back to the house.' He started to go after her, yelling for her to come to him, but stopped when he noticed a light flickering at the right side of his vision. At first he ignored it, concentrating on trying to get to Rachel, but it kept getting brighter.

"What the fuck is that!" he stopped near the middle of the right hand side of the road and turned to look what it was. Seeing two brightly shining orbs coming at him at a high rate of speed, he cursed himself for being so stupid. A blaring and screeching sound filled his ears as light engulfed his vison. "Fuck me." were his last words as blinding pain took over his world, then blissful darkness engulfed him as his thoughts faded into numbness.


	6. The Dead Cometh

Chapter 6

"Let's move out!" Major Noah Horne bellowed to his rescue force of 200 soldiers. He got back into the passenger seat of the lead truck, giving the driver the order to go. Their first stop was the college at the top of the hill behind the base, to see if they could pick up any students or professors. After that, the plan was to split into 4 equal groups and search the surrounding homes and local businesses and try to pick up as many civilians as possible.

"Alright sir, where should we go first?" the driver asked Noah.

"Pull up to that first building, and we'll start from there. " He replied.

"Yes sir!" the young man replied as he lead the large convoy of vehicles and soldiers to the first large class building. Jumping out Noah signaled to his second in command for this mission, sergeant-major Matney to come forward.

"I want you to go through this building quickly, but throughly, pick up any uninjured civilians and put them on the trucks. If anyone has been bitten, take them outside if at all possible and dispose of them as quickly as possible with a shot to the head. Use any force you deem necessary to get the job done, and don't hesitate to use lethal force if you encounter any resistance. Is that understood?" Noah asked him with a hurried but calm urgency.

Larry only confirmed that he did with a grim nod of his head. " I know it's a tough situation, but these are tough times, we've got to do what we have to just to survive." Noah told the man trying to ease the discomfort clearly showing in his eyes.

"I know sir, you can count on me to get the job done, im just worried about my wife and little girl." Larry told his superior with a haunted look on his face.

"I know Larry, I'm sure there fine, they're visiting your mother-in-law in oklahoma aren't they?" Noah asked while putting a hand on the mans shoulder. Getting another nod for a response Noah continued. "I'm sure they're fine Larry, that's till a ways away from any of the really bad hit areas, and I'm sure they went to a local base and stayed there. They'll be fine Larry, you've got to focus on this mission, any kind of distraction will get you killed." Noah told him.

"Yes sir, don't worry about me, I'll be fine, we'll see how many people we can get out of this place safely." Larry told Noah in a slightly more serene voice. With that they entered the building through the front entrance, Larry lead a team down the right corridor while smaller groups went in from various side entrances and the main rear entrance.

Noah led a squad of six, including his aid Corporal Johnson, down an eerily quiet hallway checking the doors and rooms, calling if anyone was there. After 6 locked doors, they finally came to a room where a loud voice could be heard trying to describe the main differences between the north and south before the civil war. Glancing at Johnson, Noah pulled out his favorite side arm, a vintage Colt M1911. It only held a seven round magazine, but he had extra clips for it and also a backup, his Beretta Model 92SB with a thirteen round magazine, both handguns packed a respective punch. With his sidearm out, Noah knocked on the door several hard times. "Open up! This is the national Guard and we're here to evacuate you!. Within seconds and middle aged man with premature grey hair and a small trimmed beard opened the door.

"Evacuate? To where and why?" asked the bewildered professor.

"We're here to evacuate you to the national guard base, for the reason why, that's not for you to know." Noah told the man while motioning for the man to go out the door.

"I don't see why were being evacuated, there hasn't been any kind of trouble around here, its all out east, although someone did try to mug Corey." The professor told the man as he was lead outside. Noah looked at the man with a scrutinizing glare, then turned back to the classroom and took in the small group of students currently sitting with bewildered looks on their faces.

"Hello, my name is Noah Horne and if you would please quickly and orderly follow me outside we will begin to evacuate you to the compound." He told the group of 11 students in a calm but reassuring voice. "Have any of you been bitten or attacked by anyone?" he asked. Two people raised their hands, including the young man named Corey, and a rather tall redheaded woman.

"If you two don't mind, go check with PFC Stiltner when you get out the door so she can check you over and treat your injuries, if that's it, we don't have much time, so if you would please follow me." He finished as he stepped out of the door with the young students beginning to follow. Noah went up to PFC Stiltner, a short woman of about 30 who worked part time as a travel agent, and put his hand on her shoulder. "Take them outside, make sure there bites first, and make it quick, one shot to the head and lets get out of here, catch up with us at the end of the hall." he said in a low voice as the students were coming out the door, she gave a quick salute as she motioned for the two students to follow her. "Alright, lets get you on a truck and get you out of here. We don't have all day to waste." Noah said while leading the group down the hall. Less then a half minute later 2 rapid gunshots could be heard.

As soon as they got outside the scene greeting them is what a few people would call a "Chinese fire drill." With soldiers leading civilians towards the trucks as fast as possible, with the occasional loud percussion of various firearms being discharged filling the air. Jogging towards the man he wanted to talked to, Noah came upon Larry while he was having a heated discussion with someone on the radio.

"What's going on Sergeant Major?" Noah asked.

"Lieutenant Robertson has reported that Captain Goodell has returned with enough vehicles and various materials to begin fortifying the base, he has also reported light casualties, with 13 soldiers being killed outright, and having to put down another half dozen from bites. There hasn't been much resistance and apart from a few moderate encounters with these creatures, the mission was completed with relative ease, it appears that this area hasn't felt the full effects of the epidemic yet sir." Larry told Noah in a rushed voice.

"Tell Lieutenant Robertson that we will hopefully return in 6 hours, and sooner if we run into heavy resistance. He can use any means he deems necessary to fortify the main compound well, I don't want any breaches of the compound. This will just be the basic defense, well add more later." Noah told the man while watching a relatively small amount of civilians were boarded onto the empty trucks.

Larry nodded and began to relay those instructions to the Lieutenant back at base.

In very little time the small campus was searched, leaving the college in an ill quiet. With everyone safely aboard the trucks, Noah went up to the group of soldiers that had lead the various evacuation squads hoping to get a count of civilians aboard the convoy. "How did we do?" Noah asked the small group of 9 people. Larry matney spoke up for the group.

"We evacuated, lets see, 59 students, 11 professors and 6 cafeteria workers. 76 in total sir. We had to shoot 13 due to bites, but we didn't have any casualties as a result. Sir, it seems to just be sporadic attacks at the moment, the creatures haven't made an appearance as of yet, but we know there near due to the bitten civilians." Larry replied to his commanding officer.

"That's not a bad little number of civilians." Noah half muttered to himself, then looked at Larry. "Yes, were rather lucky at the moment that we haven't encountered any of the creatures yet, but rest assured that in probably a very short we will be wading balls deep in those things and we have to try to get everything set up and ready to be defended before we face a full assault from them." Noah responded to Larry and small group.

"Now that we've evacuated this facility, we will split into four groups and go east, west, north and south. Larry, you take your squad east, sergeant major Bradley, take yours north, sergeant major Houston takes yours south, also swing by the Wal mart and try to very quickly pick up some food and supplies. I'll lead my squad west into the residential areas. Lets see if what we can find. If anyone runs into any major trouble report in and pull back towards the base. If you run into single or small groups of the creatures, take them out, shots to the head only now, no need to waste ammo. You all know what needs to be done to people who have been bitten, regardless of who they are, we don't need and major shit to happen because someone got sentimental and had a major lapse in judgement. These are some hard times, and I know you may have some doubts and personal opinions about what's going on, but remember your training and push those aside to accomplish the mission, there will be time for that later my friends. Now anyone have any questions before we move out?" Noah asked while looking the group gathered there in the faces.

They took a few furtive glances around, but only Larry spoke up. "No sir, we know what to do to get the job done. Well see how many people we can save today sir." Larry responded with a salute and a fierce look in his eyes. The rest of the soldiers instantly saluted in return to the statement Larry had said.

"Very well people, I believe its time to get moving, we've wasted enough time sitting here yapping." Noah told them. "Good luck and happy hunting, be careful and exercise extreme caution, don't engage them unless absolutely necessary. I want to see all of you again in a few hours. Dismissed." With that the group departed, and Noah climbed aboard the lead truck to take his squad into the suburbs of hell.

Rapid gunfire could be heard throughout the neighborhood, making sounds not unlike what one would hear on the fourth of July as children played with their thousands of firecrackers. Screams of the undead and living could be heard mingling in the warm spring air. People of every religion and race and gender could be seen running about trying to escape the ensuing chaos. To any un-effected observer, the scene could only be described as a page taken directly from hell itself.

"Pull back goddamn it, there's too fucking many of these assholes!" Major Noah Horn screamed to what was left of his squad while he fired his sidearm into the forehead of a overly obese man dressed in a torn business suit and with only one arm. The man went down in a heap, falling nicely into a pile of about a dozen fallen undead. Turning around he began to run towards the convoy of trucks, his soldiers falling in behind him. His driver was waiting for him just ahead standing outside the lead truck, looking scared nearly to death. Noah was within fifteen feet of the soldier, whom he could not remember his name, when a woman who was draggin her entire digestive tract around her feet jumped around the front and bite deeply into the young boy's thickly muscled neck. Blood sprayed in a crimson jet across the door as the young man began to scream, trying to beat off the woman, in turn making her tear out half of his neck in the process. Noah cursed, and drew his pistol, neatly put a bullet into the back of the woman's head, making it splatter like a rotten watermelon. Running up to the boy he could see that he was still alive, but only barely. "Sorry about this son, but im going to have to do it." Noah said as he positioned the weapon into place and put a bullet through the dying mans head, ending his misery.

Climbing in, he slid over to the drivers seat, and put the truck in gear, just as corporal Johnson, his aid, jumped into the passenger seat, breathing like he had just ran a marathon, and locked the door. "Go sir, we need to get out of here, go, go, go!" He said in a hysterical voice.

"Calm down Johnson, were getting out of here son." Noah told the boy while putting the truck in gear and starting down the road. He picked up the radio to check out the condition of his force. "First sergeant taylor, are you there?" He asked loudly.

"Yes sir, im here, but just by the skin of my teeth sir." First sergeant Brad Taylor responded. "What do you need sir, im three vehicles behind you."

"What's the status report? How many civies did we pick up and how many casualties did we receive?" Noah asked in a quiet voice.

"As of right now we've got just over a hundred people on board. We kept losing more than we could save, and we took heavy causul..Run over it goddamn it!!...stupid thing ran in front of the truck. We took heavy casualties, losing 31 men sir, and 4 trucks. We've only got 19 men left sir, we're in trouble if we run into anything like that again." Brad told him with a heavy voice.

"I know Brad, but were close to the base now, I just hope for the love of god that Robertson and Goodell have that base secured and ready to receive us. Were only 5 minutes away now son, just hang in there and well be fine." Noah told him. The other groups hade reported in, Bradley's squad had been hit the worst, with only 9 soldiers left alive and 27 survivors. The other two had been relatively unharmed, picking up nearly 190 civilians. Noah hoped that he had done the right thing and not wasted his men's lives, and that staying at the base was the right decision.

"Sir, look at that, how did they get here?!" corporal Johnson asked in an incredulous tone.

Looking ahead at the base, Noah saw what had Johnson's panties in a wad. The base was well fortified alright, but there was no earthly way he was getting in there. At the front gate stood what had to be nearly 300 undead.

"No fucking way...damn this is going to be a long day." Noah said as he pulled to a stop a long distance away and tried to come up with a plan to gain entry to safety before the small horde in front of him noticed the meals on wheels.

A/N sorry bout the late update, ive been having some health problems, gal-bladder and pancreas, but im better now and maybe i can get back into the swing of things, hope you enjoyed the story.


	7. Chapter 7

Dan drove trough town at breakneck speeds, barely dodging oncoming traffic and people running wildly onto the road trying to escape their pursuers. Everyone in the cab of the truck sat in silent awe of the scenes of carnage be folding throughout the town. The closer they got to the base, the worse the destruction and chaos became.

"Man, look at all of this. It's like were driving through a suburb of hell itself." Amy said in a hushed tone. : and I'm worried about Adam, what if he got caught in all of this? He better be ok or if he isn't ill find him and kill him again." she said vengefully.

"Don't' worry about it too much Amy, the more you worry, the worse you'll feel." James told her and gave her shoulder a gentle little shove. "And im sure the idiot is fine girl, he may just have overslept or something, and I think he's bright enough to find his way to where were going. Just be patient."

"Yeah, you're probably right, I'll just have to have faith in his little ass." Amy said with a small sigh and slightly downcast look, then suddenly perked up and looked at Dan. "Hey Dan, how far are we from the base?"

"Uhhh...I think were maybe 5 minutes away from Wal-Mart and maybe another 10 to the base, 15 at the most." He replied while trying to light a cigarette with a shaking hand.

"Good, I cant take much more of this shit I'm telling ya!" Roxy said while rubbing her temples trying to relieve a growing migraine.

James watched as a little girl still in her pajamas trying to crawl towards the truck, but was obviously one of them, having her throat ripped out and missing both of her legs."Yeah, I know what ya saying there, but once we get to the base we should be fairly safe from these things. I mean they got guns and trucks and maybe a few tanks and shit. If anyone can help us, its gotta be them." he said to everyone.

"You're right man, that should be safe, better than trying to stay at house that's for sure." Dan said while taking a quick look back at James.

"Dan! Look out! Holy fu..."Roxy screamed as a car careened from a side road and hit them at about 40 miles an hour at a slight angle, but still mostly head on. The truck spun wildy out of control, coming to rest with the passenger side sung against the guardrail while the other vehicle spun to a stop in the ditch on the opposite side of the road. After seconds of utter silence, James was the first one to regain his senses. "What the hell just happened?" he asked in a shaking voice. No one answered his question, so he toke in his immediate surroundings and saw Amy next to him leaning against the passenger door of the extended cab with glass stuck in her hair and blood oozing down her face. Checking her over more closely and calling her name he found her to be unconscious. Looking in the front seats, he saw Roxy leaning forward into a deflating air bag, she was also unconscious. Dan was a different story. Apparently his air bag had malfunctioned and failed to open, leaving his face to take the full brunt of the impact with the steering wheel. The steering wheel was bent and wrapped around his head up to his ears, with his face resting on the horn with it blaring. He was obviously dead, blood was pouring from his crushed face, and had one eyeball hanging from its socket. With a nauseous feeling starting to claim him he noticed that he was relatively unharmed. His shoulder was sore and his knee was beginning to swell, but other than that he was fine.

"Son of a Bitch!, now what am I supposed to do?" He thought to himself. Looking outside he could see in the distance a half dozen of the undead were rapidly making their way to the wreck. "Holy shit...Amy wake the fuck up now!" he yelled at her while gently shaking her and slapping her cheek. She groaned and slowly began to regain consciousness. "Amy, come on girl, we aint got much time, those fuckers have seen us and I think they may be hungry." she opened her eyes as that thought sank in.

"What happened?" she asked James as he was quickly wiping the blood and glass off of her.

"We were hit head on and crashed into the guardrail, Roxy's knocked out and...well ...Dan's dead." James quietly told her. "What? He cant be dead." she spoke in a high pitched voice. But looking into the front seat, James was proven true as she took in the sight of one of her best friends dead.

"But we've got bigger fish coming down to the road." James pointed out the window at the zombies running at them with wild abandon. " we've got to get the hell outta here now!"

"Open the door man, were going to have to make a run for it." Amy said.

James looked at her with a frown on his face and said "Don't you think I know that?" But as he tried the door handle, he found that it wouldn't open. He pushed against it with his shoulder, but again it wouldn't budge. Finally getting pissed off at the god forsaken door, he told Amy to move over, scooting back he lifted his legs to the door, he leaned back, and put every ounce of energy he had into the kick, effectively opening the door. Also having the counter effect of sending the entire door off its hinges onto the pavement with a dull clang. "Oops, don't know my own strength." James said a bit sheepishly. "Come on, we've got to get outta here, you look for the gun, should be in the back here somewhere, and ill try to pull Roxy out and we can get outta here." he said while getting out. Amy nodded and began searching for the 9 mm while James got out and had to steady his nerves for what he was going to do. Opening the door, he gently laid Dan back, being careful not to look to much at his ruined face, he picked him up and gingerly laying him on the asphalt. With a quick breather, he leaned back in, hooked one of Roxy's arms around his shoulder and drug her outside the totaled truck.

Amy was waiting outside for him as he carried Roxy out. "I've got the gun, but what are we going to do now?"Amy asked with panic clearly setting into her eyes and voice.

"Well im going to try to carry Roxy on my shoulder, and you and me are going to try to out run these things. Maybe we can find a car or someone to take us to the base." James told her and she nodded her agreement. James then hefted Roxy on to his shoulder, though she was slightly heavier than he thought she would be, he could easily manage for a while. Being an avid weightlifter for 5 years had its perks he thought to himself, as the last time he lifted he could bench 500 with little effort, a small amount of pride at that thought gave him a little surge of energy."Well, lets get going Amy, I hate to leave Dan out here like this, but there's nothing we can do for him, god rest his soul." They began to run at a fast trot, since they were both slightly overweight, they couldn't run all that fast. After a short while, Amy looked back and saw how close the zombies were now, they were close enough to clearly see most of their features.

"Uhhh...James, those things are getting closer." Amy relayed her observations to him. James looked back and saw that she was right. Swearing, he quickly tried to formulate a plan. Though he could clearly see Wal-Mart up ahead, he was starting to get short of breath. He noticed that there were only 6 of the things running after them, so he decided to try and get rid of them once and for all. He didn't know how many bullets were in the gun, but he figured there were enough for the job. "Amy, when I tell you to stop, stop and hand me the gun, I've shot some before, so I should be alright. Ill put Roxy down and try to shoot these things. Alright?" he told her between breathing hard. .She nodded and got ready to hand over the pistol. Eyeing a car up ahead he decided to make his stand there.

"Alright, hand me that gun!" he yelled to her. They both stopped and James quickly put Roxy down and grabbed the gun from Amy's out stretched hands. Turning around and taking in the fast approaching undead, he noticed that they were shockingly close, within 50 yards, that scared him to no end. He brought the 9 mm up and sighted the first zombie in the group, it was a middle aged business man in a grey suit soaked in blood. Taking aim at the chest, he let loose a round and waited for the result. His aim was off, slightly to the left, but as it missed his original target, it hit another one dead on in the left eye, blowing the top of its head off, it tumbled to the ground, taking 3 behind it to the ground with it. "Holy shit, that was lucky." he said to himself in awe. Bringing the gun back up he began to let rounds loose. He caught the next 4 with head shots, effectively ending their miserable existence, but the last one, who was a young girl, maybe 14, with hardly any skin on her left arm, had to be shot at twice, for he missed the first shot and blew a hole in her stomach. Within the span of 3 minutes, he had gotten rid of the zombies that were chasing him. Now their was an eerie silence in the general vicinity.

"Okay...Amy, what should we do now? The car here is locked, do you think we should make a run to Wal-mart and see if there's something there that we can cabbage and use?" James asked Amy while he was hoisting Roxy back on his shoulder.

"I know it wont be good if we stay in the open like this, I think we should go to Wal-Mart, maybe pick up another gun or two, I know they don't have much, but they do have a little." she pointed out this aspect to him as they both started to jog to Wal-Mart. " Sounds good to me. I don't think this pistol has many rounds left, I used 7 rounds I think, so we need some more firepower that's for sure.

* * *

Major Noah Horne sat in the drivers seat of the transport truck along with Corporal Johnson looking at the scene in front of them, maybe 200 yards in front of them stood nearly 300 of the undead in front of the gates leading to his base. With only 122 of his original 200 soldiers remaining he didn't have adequate support to take out the horde blocking his way. Corporal Johnson was apparently having a mental breakdown, crying and quietly saying that he didn't want to die. He couldn't comfort the boy at the moment, he needed to figure out how to get in, and fast. Before he could get much farther in thought, the C.B. came to life. "Major Horne! Are you there sir?" came the static voice of Lieutenant Robertson. Quickly picking up the device he responded.

"This is Major Horne, what is it Robertson?"

"We've seen that you've got back, but we cant open the gates because the infected had gathered in front." He told his commanding officer.

Tell me something I don't know jackass, he thought to himself. "Well how do you propose we get these gates open Robertson?" Noah asked.

"Just sit tight sire, were going to open the gates and send out 2 tanks and six armored vehicles to take care of them, and there shouldn't be any that get in, we've built a makeshift corral with secondary gates behind the main gates sir." Robertson said.

"Nice idea there son, we'll sit tight until you have the situation under control. God speed. Grind them to pulp." replied Noah in a vindictive tone.

Without warning, the reinforced steel and chainlink gates slid open, and the pair of tanks they had roared out along with a half dozen of their armored vehicles with machine guns and rifles barking. It was a sight to behold as the tanks crushed more of the undead under their treads than they got with the heavy artillery. But even with the fairly large amount of undead, they didn't get very close to the convoy due to the continuos moving and individual shooting of the men inside. In under 10 minutes they had cleared the front gates of moving dead. Noah picked up the CB and barked orders to the rest of the convoy and the men at the gates to get moving and get inside. The convoy made it safely into the makeshift corral and were checked over to see if any infected had made it unknowingly onto a vehicle or hidden underneath it. After an all clear had been given, Noah slid out the drivers side and walked to the passenger door, opening it up. Corporal, you need to get out now." Noah said very gently to the sobbing young man. "Come on now, just take my hand and we'll get you inside where its safe and quiet." With that said, Johnson reached out his shaking hand to Noah, who took it and gingerly guided him to the waiting medics nearby.

A few minutes later, Noah was in a meeting with the higher ranking officers to hear reports on what has transpired throughout the day.

Sergeant-Major Matney was giving his report on how the recovery mission went.

"Well sir. We lost 78 men, bringing back 122 out of 200. There was just too many of the creatures out there to not sustain heavy losses, although we did manage to bring back 191 civilians sir." he told Noah.

"Thank you for that report Sergeant-Major. Lieutenant Robertson, Captain Goodell, you're reports please." Noah asked them both.

Lieutenant Robertson took the initiative and went first. "Well sir, I don't have much to report. We have now just under 670 soldiers and just slightly over 400 civies on base. We have room enough for maybe 200 more people, and supplies should last for a few more months at least. That's all I've really gotten so far sir, as I get better info I can give you further updates, well Captian, you're up." Robertson said as he finished his brief report. Handing over the reigns to Captain Goodell.

"Sir, we have reinforced the main compound wall with vehicles and covered those up with dirt and rock we had behind the barracks. The fortifications should be sufficient for a while sir, but we do need to think about further fortification if we plan to stay here for any long period of time. We've also been laying more layers of razor wire across the top, it may not hurt them, but it will slow them down till we can dispose of them. That's all we've been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. Do we have your permission to build sniper towers along the walls sir? They wont be much, just enough to get a man up there to have better coverage of the place." He asked in a hopeful tone. "We, can tear down a few of the outbuildings we have that are of no use anymore to construct those, but if we need more materials, we may have to leave the base to get them.

"You have my permission to build the sniper towers, but I know construction material is limited here. You're right, we may end up having to scavenge outside for more materials. But with that said, I want to congratulate you men, on a job well done, under these circumstances you have done exceedingly well men. Now, since it is nearly nightfall, you may want to start assigning bunks to the civilians and have some dinner ready for these individuals. Also, I want every single person in there, everyone, checked from top to bottom for infection. We don't need a disaster to pop inside these walls. That's all, you are dismissed." With salutes and handshakes all around, Noah was left alone in the conference room looking out the lone window, watching the evening sky turn to orange and blood red, signifying the end to a bloody day. He could only hope that tomorrow would be a better day. But fate it seems, always has other endings in store.

A/N: sorry for the late update, just had to deal some health issues, but i got some good idears for this story, i hope ya liked it. leave some love or a reveiw if ya dont love it lol.


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